Saturday, November 27, 2010

TIMES NOW - 'Terror Jayanti'

Yesterday, 26/11, TIMES Now carried reports and discussions on the 2nd anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks. The headlines through the program were “India’s Open Wound” and “India Won’t Forget”. In addition they kept flashing “4 Reasons why Indians are outraged” . These are sharp lessons on how to fool the Indian people, the victims, the martyrs by a media group that has really not reflected the people’s feelings appropriately. I may sound unkind, but for some in our media 26/11 is as good as ‘Terror Jayanti’. The Times’ economy on journalistic ethics is by now well known so I won’t go into that.

For all the outpourings on their channel yesterday, the TIMES group is the very media house that ran the obnoxious “Aman Ki Asha” campaign. This was just after the first anniversary of 26/11. When the attacks happened in 2008 Times Now covered the entire situation under a byline “We will never forget”. Yet in just over a year they were preaching “Aman Ki Asha” with the terrorist state of Pakistan. And mind you, they even wanted children to participate in the campaign. Young, innocent kids who aren’t old enough to understand the underlying issues. I called it TOI’s ‘child abuse’! How to soak up business on your emotions.

It is this atrocious hypocrisy and double-speak of not only the Times group but also many of the Sec-Soc media channels that insults the memory of the victims and the soldiers who were martyred. When the AKA campaign was started a favourite blog of mine, PrudentIndian, raised all the right questions.

I reproduce a piece from that blog (which quotes The Pioneer with its own inputs):

“There are three groups in India which are obsessed with friendship with Pakistan. The first group comprises elderly people born in that part before partition (Kuldeep Nayyar, Khushwant Singh Inder Kumar Gujaral just to name some yes, Manmohan Singh too) and who are nostalgic about Lahore havelis, halwa and mujra. The second group comprises Bollywood actors, directors and assorted outfits who look at Pakistan as a big market (Shahrukh Khan, Mahesh Bhatt, Javed, Shabana and their ilk). Dawood Ibrahim’s gang has financed many of these useful idiots. ....The third group comprises bleeding heart liberals who hold candle light vigils and who cannot imagine India doing well without its ‘younger brother’ taken care of (almost all Sec-Soc MSM and their telesecularists). All three have been proved wrong a hundred times but they unfortunately play an important role in moulding opinion.

If we want the world to treat Pakistan for what it is, then we should start practicing it. We must always recognise it as the ‘Terrorist State of Pakistan’ and never have any illusion that it is going to be any different.

We should completely and comprehensively cut off all relations with Pakistan — economic, cultural, sports and all other aspects. Dawood Ibrahim-funded Bollywood may weep....Unless we start completely boycotting the ‘Terrorist State of Pakistan’ we cannot ask others to do it..... If corporate India — including electronic and print media — starts practicing it, then we can see results in a few years. One hopes that India’s elite is listening and will not get carried away by asha for the demons.”

TOI ad column on the left states "Love OVER Country....As opposed to supposed public and societal interests"... Well said indeed!

Now that ‘terror jayanti’ is over for some media groups, they will happily go back to doing business with Pakistan. The Times group’s thinning Matrimonial pages on Sunday can now get fatter again with Shaadi ads from Pakistan. Times sponsored Bollywood bashes and mujras can start all over again. Shah Rukh Khan is scheduled to do a special program for Pakistan (The friendly neighbour) Prime TV on November 28 in London.

Those who have never been to Bombay may like to ponder this one: The Times group’s head office in Mumbai is bang in front of the CST Railway station where the terror attacks first started. What if the terrorists had chosen to attack the TOI office instead of the CST station and if some of their dedicated employees had suffered? Would they still preach some crap called ‘Aman Ki Asha’? You try and figure that one. “We won’t forget” indeed !

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